A KNOCK AT THE DOOR......

A few days ago, there was a knock on my front door. I rushed down stairs expecting it to be our local postman (who, incidentally, originates from the same small Hampshire village - over 100 miles away - where I spent my boyhood; such a small world)....only to be confronted by two charming and very presentable young ladies.

They had come to spread the word about the qualities of and their their devotion to Jehovah`s Witnesses.

Now, I can well imagine that they had perhaps received a less than enthusiastic welcome in most of the houses in our Kentish enclave, but they launched straight into their `sales pitch` which made it difficult for me to bring the encounter to an early conclusion. And, of course, I am by nature a tolerant individual, disinclined to invoke aggression without provocation....just ask the members of my football `crew.`

However, my visitors went through their routine but perhaps failed to realise that I quite like a good `debate` now and again and, indeed, we had one - which polarised on the true meaning of religion, its place in the modern world and its history in shaping the advance of civilisation.


I have absolutely no problem with Jehovah`s Witnesses, the Flat Earth Society, Pan`s People or any other group or individual who hold dear the things which are important to them. I believe in tolerance in most things and all I asked in return for listening to what my visitors had to say was that they might just spend a moment or two listening to my own conviction.

And so it came to pass that I might just have convinced them that the one true religion is, after all, football. And that Matthew Le Tissier is not known as Le God for no reason. And that the Barclays Premier League with all its arrogance, greed, avarice and falsehood might, just might, represent the forces of evil, with the risible Alex Ferguson taking the leading role, soon to be ably supported by that paragon of human rights virtue, Thaksin Shinawatra.

It may be some time before they knock on my door again. Especially as I suspect I may dwell in the enviable landscape of the Coca-Cola Championship for some years to come.